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Inside the Home of Instant Pot

nytimes.com

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Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#141

Post by EADGBE »

rbobby wrote: post #135
mattmaroon wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Idk, my grandma has a similar unit she got a couple decades ago. It was cheap though I don't know how cheap. (I do know my grandma though.) Lots of competition that's similarly priced. The main benefit of the stovetop units (I have both) is speed. The heating element on the cheaper electric is drastically underpowered and can't even get a good Mailliard. The higher end ones can but they're still much slower than a ga…

> much slower than a gas stove There ya go right there! Electric stoves are "slow" to heat up and "slow" to change temperatures. You're used to the gold standard :)

So many people are afraid of gas ranges. It's ridiculous. My wife is literally terrified she'll burn the house down.

Yet we use a giant gas-powered pressure cooker in the basement to take warm showers and somehow that's okay.

We used our gas range even when the power was out, to toast tortillas (that's a bit tricky though, but worked well), and even in a pinch during a multi-day blizzard as an emergency heat source (though it didn't run all night, and was relatively safely monitored, you know, the "don't try this at home, kids").

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#142

Post by mason55 »

bigtex wrote: post #105

If you get the bluetooth enabled version, you can have delicious steel cut oats ready for breakfast. You just set the time you want it finished and wallah! https://instantpot.com/portfolio-item/smart-bluetooth/

Is the bluetooth enabled version actually for sale? I don't see it in their store or on Amazon

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#143

Post by billfruit »

chrisgd wrote: post #120
billfruit wrote: post #109

Does it deal with power failures, as in it remembers it's state and then properly adjusts for delayed start and stop considering the duration of power failure and adjusting process considering the cooking due to already generated heat when power was gone?

How often do you experience power outages? I don't think it does, but I don't think it needs to either

In the third world, an awful lot of times. But being an automated device, if doesn't deal with power outages, then I can't dependent on it to do cooking overnight, while I am asleep. Waking up and finding that machine didn't do its job, because power failed for a few minutes in the middle of the night, is not an ideal situation at all.

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#144

Post by akgerber »

ghaff wrote: post #136
Rezo wrote: post #127

Lots of people seem to be wondering why Instant Pot has become a hit while electronic pressure cookers have existed as a category for quite some time. I personally think it's a great case of tipping points, networking effects and branding all working together. The Instant Pot is a genuinely good product, so it didn't have a trouble finding early users. These people then produced recipes, books and videos not for pres…

>I think most people who buy this product aren't interested in pressure cookers at all, instead they're specifically getting an Instant Pot. And while technically they may be the same, the customers don't necessarily perceive it that way. I don't know how deliberate it was but de-emphasizing its pressure cookerness was a smart move. A lot of people still associate "pressure cooker" with "explosions" and, even if they…

I have read an interview with the owner where he said he deliberately added & marketed a bunch of redundant safety features because Americans are afraid of pressure cookers.

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#145

Post by selimthegrim »

spodek wrote: post #102
spraak wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be glad to know how to make bread in a pressure cooker!

First the caveats: My pressure-cooked bread tastes delicious to me, but I experiment so my results vary. Most batches wouldn't make it into a bakery. For one thing, I start with wheat berries that I turn into flour in my blender. I blend some to fine flour so it gets doughy, but some course, which gives more texture and, I hear, lowers the glycemic load or something like that. For another, I add flavors. I started wi…

I presume buttermilk works as well?

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#146

Post by slantyyz »

brunoqc wrote: post #38

I own an Instant Pot and I wasn't impressed. The rice sticks unlike a real rice cooker and the pressure cooking was slow. I followed some normal pressure cooker recipes and I had to double or triple the time.

>> The rice sticks unlike a real rice cooker

Rice doesn't stick only in rice cookers that don't have a non-stick interior pot. My parents have some older generation rice cookers that still work, and they have aluminum interior pots and the rice sticks to them.

The only problem is that the stuck rice doesn't burn a little at the bottom. That is the best part of the rice when mixed with soup.

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#147

Post by slantyyz »

FWIW, Instant Pot now makes a sous vide circulator too. I bought one on Black Friday, and it works pretty well (although that's from the perspective of a n00b). It's cheaper than the Anova and other big names.

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#148

Post by nichtich »

dogruck wrote: post #114
nichtich wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty weird when you consider how food trends go. In China, back in the 90s, my parents use a pressure cooker and a wok for everything. And it's the norm as for most families I know both parent work and they have to come home at 5:30 and put food on the table at 6:30, with no easy option like frozen pizza. Now with supermarkets and food delivery you don't need to cook if you don't want to, and if you do choose…

I really liked this comparison. You might be right! Can you say more? For example: 1. Back in the day, in the US, easy pre-made home meals were the rage. Frozen meals. Microwave dinners. Meals from a can. I don’t mean, “yeah, sure, we still have those today.” I mean, “This is the new society, this is the future, and this food is delicious and amazing!!!” Was that ever a trend in China? 2. Is there a “Blue Apron China…

So i think in both places cooking has become more of a hobby/status signaling thing.

In China there's something similar to blue apron in late 90s or early 2000s. But it kinda die out because it's offered more on the convenience side instead of healthy side.

Baking stuff becomes quite popular in recent years, because it's a western thing, and it's time consuming, good for share with friends in itself or as photos:good showoff material. Whereas the old method of finding whatever is fresh today at wet market and do a quick stir-fry becomes more and more reserved for older genration, and thus is not a fancy thing todo. Pressure cooking also is something you do when you don't have time and worry about fuel bill, not sexy.

Preprepared food is looked down upon in both us and china , it seems. In US i think people feel empowering by the idea of feeding your family in a healthy way without a stay at home mom; in China a stayed at home mom just recently becomes a thing to brag about, and cooking seems to be a important tool to do it.

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#149

Post by ghaff »

slantyyz wrote: post #147

FWIW, Instant Pot now makes a sous vide circulator too. I bought one on Black Friday, and it works pretty well (although that's from the perspective of a n00b). It's cheaper than the Anova and other big names.

It looks to be about the same price as Anova. They're both in the $120-$130 range. It's amazing how these circulators have come down in price. Wasn't that long ago your choices were DIY or about $800 for a Polyscience.

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#150

Post by jasonlotito »

mattmaroon wrote: post #133
ghaff wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article does get into the viral marketing etc. but, like you, I would like to hear more. I'm honestly not sure why the Instant Pot took off when (admittedly mostly much more expensive) electric pressure cookers have been around for ages. Though, reading the article, it's also not clear to me if the founder really knows why it became so successful either.

Yeah, I'd love to know if it was intentional.

FTA:

> In 2010, after several months of sluggish sales in and around Ontario, Mr. Wang listed the Instant Pot on Amazon, where a community of food writers eventually took notice. Vegetarians and paleo dieters, in particular, were drawn to the device’s pressure-cooking function, which shaved hours off the time needed to cook pots of beans or large cuts of meat.

> Sensing viral potential, Instant Pot sent test units to about 200 influential chefs, cooking instructors and food bloggers. Reviews and recipes appeared online, and sales began to climb.

I really don't know what you are talking about. It spells out exactly what they did, and why they did it.

It also talks about taking advantage of "Fulfilled by Amazon" back in 2010, still early in the program, and credits Amazon with over 90% of it's sales at one point.

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